Usagi gets home Sunday night. Luna hops off her shoulder and trots to her food dish. Papa's sitting on the couch watching television, Shingo's at the kitchen table finishing up the last of his homework.

Ikuko's humming as she folds a sheet. It's witchcraft, obviously, because it's a fitted sheet.

The only warning she gets is a sob cut short, and then she has an arm full of daughter.

"Usagi! Are you okay?"

And the dam breaks. Weeks, months of near constant emotional upheaval, of pain both physical and not. Of having almost been lost to them forever, and they never would have known why.

Her sobs are loud, and they hurt, but her Mama is here and she's holding tight, warm and loving hands soothing over hair and clothes. Usagi's fingers are like claws, holding fast and ruining fabric even as she's wetting her shoulder.

She's six again, coming home with skinned knees and running from bullies. And here, absolutely nothing bad can reach her because her Mama's the strongest person on Earth.

"It's okay, Usa. Everything will be okay."

Usagi knows this on some level, of course. But she's cries on friends, she's cried on Mamoru. She's cried alone and around people.

But sometimes, sometimes, there comes a time when only crying on her mother will do.